WITH PREMIUMS FOR COEs consistently dipping below the $20,000 mark you can argue that there has never been a better time to look into OPC ownership, especially when you factor in the substantial savings to be had.

Bear in mind that there are several ownership scenarios to consider, but now that your appetite’s been whetted, here are some of the things that you should know before taking the OPC plunge.

USAGE OF AN OPC
This is the most significant aspect of OPC ownership, and you should be very particular when determining if you can manage the restrictions. It is actually easier to remember the hours that you can’t use an OPC than the hours that you can. These are:

• Monday to Fridays from 7am to 7pm
• Saturdays from 7am to 3pm

OPCs can be driven for free every night from 7pm to 7am, the whole day on Sundays and on public holidays. They can also be driven for free on the eve of the five major public holidays. These are:
• New Year
• Chinese New Year
• Hari Raya Puasa
• Deepavali
• Christmas

DRIVING AN OPC DURING RESTRICTED HOURS
Owners who need to drive their OPCs during the restricted hours from 7am to 7pm from Monday to Fridays and from 7am to 3pm on Saturdays can do so for a fee of $20 per day.

Known as the daily license, these can be purchased from the following places:

Land Transport Authority
Vehicle & Transit Licensing Division
10 Sin Ming Drive
Tel : 1800 - CALL LTA or 1800 - 2255 582

Automobile Association of Singapore
336 River Valley Road. Tel : 6737 2444

Any Singapore Post Office

CONVERTING A NORMAL CAR TO AN OPC
If you’re thinking of changing your current car to OPC status, bear in mind that the savings in converting a car that’s already been registered are not as substantial as registering a brand new car as an OPC. For instance, owners are not entitled to the $17,000 rebate on their COE premium or ARF. Instead, owners of converted OPCs are eligible for an additional Preferential Additional Fee (PARF) on top the normal PARF rebate if they de-register or scrap their car before it is 10 years old (from the time they first bought the car). The additional PARF is calculated as follows:

(Lifespan of the car as a converted OPC (in months and days) x $2,200)/12

The bulk of the savings though, comes in the form of an $800 discount off the annual road tax subject to a minimum of $50. To convert a normal car to an OPC, the owner is required to apply to the LTA in writing.

Upon receiving an approval letter from the LTA, the owner can then proceed to change the car’s number plate and have it sealed by an authorised inspection centre such as the ones operated by JIC, STA or VICOM. To complete the conversion, owners will need to submit the required documents as listed in the letter from LTA and pay the conversion fee of $100.

CONVERTING YOUR OPC INTO A NORMAL CAR
If you already have an OPC and would like to convert it to a normal car, an application form must be submitted to the LTA at 10 Sin Ming Drive. Owners are also required to pay a $100 conversion fee and top up the ‘unused’ portion of the $17,000 rebate. This ‘top-up fee’ is calculated as follows:

($17,000) X (120 months – Number of months and days registered at time of conversion)/120
months the restricted hours from 7am to 7pm from Monday to Fridays and from 7am to 3pm on Saturdays can do so for a fee of $20 per day.

Known as the daily license, these can be purchased from the following places:

Land Transport Authority
Vehicle & Transit Licensing Division
10 Sin Ming Drive
Tel : 1800 - CALL LTA or 1800 - 2255 582

Automobile Association of Singapore
336 River Valley Road. Tel : 6737 2444

Any Singapore Post Office

CONVERTING A NORMAL CAR TO AN OPC
If you’re thinking of changing your current car to OPC status, bear in mind that the savings in converting a car that’s already been registered are not as substantial as registering a brand new car as an OPC. For instance, owners are not entitled to the $17,000 rebate on their COE premium or ARF. Instead, owners of converted OPCs are eligible for an additional Preferential Additional Fee (PARF) on top the normal PARF rebate if they de-register or scrap their car before it is 10 years old (from the time they first bought the car). The additional PARF is calculated as follows:

(Lifespan of the car as a converted OPC (in months and days) x $2,200)/12

The bulk of the savings though, comes in the form of an $800 discount off the annual road tax subject to a minimum of $50. To convert a normal car to an OPC, the owner is required to apply to the LTA in writing.

Upon receiving an approval letter from the LTA, the owner can then proceed to change the car’s number plate and have it sealed by an authorised inspection centre such as the ones operated by JIC, STA or VICOM. To complete the conversion, owners will need to submit the required documents as listed in the letter from LTA and pay the conversion fee of $100.

CONVERTING YOUR OPC INTO A NORMAL CAR
If you already have an OPC and would like to convert it to a normal car, an application form must be submitted to the LTA at 10 Sin Ming Drive. Owners are also required to pay a $100 conversion fee and top up the ‘unused’ portion of the $17,000 rebate. This ‘top-up fee’ is calculated as follows:

($17,000) X (120 months – Number of months and days registered at time of conversion)/120 months

HOW DID IT ALL START?

IN THE EARLY 1990s, the weekend car scheme was introduced as an initiative to curb traffic congestion during working hours on weekdays and also to make car ownership more affordable for those who only needed to use their cars occasionally.

While the savings were substantial, the usage of the weekend car was restricted to 7pm to 7am from Mondays to Saturdays. On the weekends owners could drive these cars, which bore a red licence plate, from 3pm on Saturdays thru the whole of Sunday and the whole day on public holidays.

If weekend car owners needed to use their cars outside of the designated times, a special coupon had to be displayed on the car’s windshield. Every year, owners were given a certain number of coupons and additional coupons could be purchased for $25 each.

FROM WEEKEND CARS TO OPCs
As the savings of the weekend car scheme were based on a percentage rather than a flat rate, some owners began to exploit a loophole in the system.

If your car had an engine capacity of 5-litres or more, you could register it under the weekend car scheme, pay for the coupons to drive it outside the designated times for every day of the week and it would still cost you less than registering it would normally.

Soon, large-capacity cars such as the Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL and Porsche 928 S4 were commonly spotted with red licence plates. This gave rise to members of the public complaining about how the system favoured the well-off. Not quite the target group that the weekend car scheme was intended for.

So on October 1st 1994, the LTA introduced the Off Peak Car (OPC) scheme to replace the Weekend Car Scheme (WCS). As before, the OPC scheme also offers new and existing car owners the option to save on car registration and road taxes in return for reduced usage.

The main difference however, is that instead of paying a percentage of the registration fee, owners are given an upfront rebate of $17,000 to offset the cost of the COE and the Additional Registration Fee (ARF).

Savings from year to year also come in the form of an $800 discount off the car’s annual road tax subject to a minimum of $50 a year. With the flat rates, its easy to figure out that the smaller the car’s engine capacity is, the more the owner stands to benefit by registering it under the OPC scheme.